1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for pre-treating and injecting a liquid specimen and a method of pre-treating and injecting a liquid specimen using the device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, biological analytic processes, such as detection of pathogenic bacteria or molecular diagnostics, include separation of target cells from samples, concentration of cells, separation of biomolecules, amplification of biomolecules, hybridization reactions and detections, etc.
Vigorous research on a lab-on-a-chips (LOC) on which a series of the biological analytical processes can be rapidly and automatically performed has been conducted. The LOC includes a microfluidic device to perform the biological analytic processes.
The microfluidic device refers to a device in which an inlet, an outlet, and a reaction chamber, etc. are in fluid communications via microchannels. The microfluidic device generally includes a micropump for transporting a fluid, a micromixer for mixing the fluid, and a microfilter for filtering the transported fluid, etc. in addition to the microchannels.
In general, the chamber of the microfluidic device contained in the LOC comprises at least one of a cell counting chamber, a cell sorting chamber, a DNA extraction chamber, a PCR amplification chamber, and a detection chamber.
A series of biological analytic processes using the LOC necessarily include collecting and pre-treating a biological sample and injecting the sample into the LOC.
For example, as a conventional device to perform the above processes, U.S. Pat. No. 6,921,395 describes a container assembly for collecting, transporting and dispensing a liquid specimen.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,409,971 describes a urine collection system device. The device is an open collection system designed to collect and transfer a liquid urine specimen into a non-evacuated tube through a valve.
However, conventional devices cannot perform all the processes of the collection, pre-treatment, and injection of the biological sample. That is, an integrated device for performing all the above processes has not been reported. Thus, there is a need for a separate injection implement or device to inject the sample into an analytical device such as the LOC after the collection and pre-treatment of the sample.
Further, the conventional devices cannot fully remove bubbles and wastes from a biological sample, for example, saliva or urine. When the sample from which the bubbles and wastes are not fully removed is injected to an analytical device, such as the LOC, clogging occurs in the microchannels, which can induce errors during the analytical processes.